diff --git a/src/XrdHttp/XrdHttpProtocol.cc b/src/XrdHttp/XrdHttpProtocol.cc
index ab79a7fb65b..79078541506 100644
--- a/src/XrdHttp/XrdHttpProtocol.cc
+++ b/src/XrdHttp/XrdHttpProtocol.cc
@@ -750,6 +750,7 @@ int XrdHttpProtocol::Process(XrdLink *lp) // We ignore the argument here
         int result = CurrentReq.parseFirstLine((char *)tmpline.c_str(), rc);
         if (result < 0) {
           TRACE(DEBUG, " Parsing of first line failed with " << result);
+          return -1;
         }
       }
       else